Professors update UHLC alums on ever-changing tax laws

Dan Leightman discusses tax ethics as fellow presenter Ira Shepard listens during a free CLE program at the Law Center.

Feb. 21, 2014 –Tax lawyers educated at the University of Houston Law Center filled a lecture hall Friday afternoon for an update on developments in tax law presented by several of the professors they may have had years ago.

The four-hour “Dean’s Free CLE Program” was part of a continuing series on various aspects of the law presented for alumni by the Law Center.

Dan Leightman, an adjunct professor and tax partner in the firm of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, opened the program with an oftentimes humorous look at tax ethics. “Tax makes people do stupid things,” he told the gathering before relating anecdotes about dumb attempts to cheat the tax man, including one corporate tycoon who enlisted a loose-lipped clerk in a scheme to avoid taxes on a multi-million dollar painting.

The presentation continued with a federal tax update from UHLC Professor Emeritus Ira Shepard and Bruce McGovern, associate dean and professor at South Texas College of Law; UHLC Professor Bill Streng discussing estate planning; and Paul Asofsky, a special adviser to the Law Center tax section, providing an overview on changes in bankruptcy tax law.

Future free CLE programs, providing four hours of CLE credit, including one hour of ethics, will be announced as they are scheduled. Programs will be held on select Friday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Bates Law Building at the Law Center.

For additional information, contact Robert Johnson, director of Continuing Legal Education, at 713-743-2063 or rbjohnson@uh.edu.